Harold Adolphe Hecht (June 1, 1907 – May 26, 1985) was an American film producer, dance director and talent agent. He was also, though less noted for, a literary agent, a theatrical producer, a theatre director and a Broadway actor. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Screen Producers Guild."18 Added to Academy", Boxoffice, December 20, 1952, p56
During his first stay in Hollywood in the early to mid-1930s, Hecht was one of the leading dance directors in the movie industry, working with the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, W. C. Fields, Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier and Marion Davies.The Courier Journal, June 23 1933, p25Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, July 1 1933, p5The Wilkes-Barre Record, July 3 1933, p20 In 1947, he co-founded Norma Productions, an independent film production company, with his business partner and managed actor Burt Lancaster."Newcomer Burt Lancaster Gets Own Outfit For Film", Louella O. Parsons, St. Petersburg Times, Friday, August 1, 1947, p16 From 1954 to 1959, the Norma Productions subsidiaries Hecht-Lancaster Productions and later Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions, were the biggest and most important independent production units in Hollywood."The Struggle for Survival", Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, September 2, 1957, p23"What's With Hecht-Hill-Lancaster?", The Tuscaloosa News, September 24, 1959, p5"Burt Lancaster Termed Enigma", The Spokesman Review, May 27, 1961, p77 Following the end of the Hecht-Hill-Lancaster partnership, Hecht continued as one of the top three independent producers in Hollywood, a position he shared with Stanley Kramer and the Mirisch brothers, for the next ten years."Writer Strike Finds Hollywood", The Bridgeport Post, November 1, 1959, p32"Pact Ends Hollywood Writers' Guild Tieup", The Oregon Statesman, November 1, 1959, p3"The Hollywood Scene", Eureka Humboldt Standard, March 31, 1962, p4
At the 28th Academy Awards ceremony in 1956, Hecht received a Best Picture Oscar for the 1955 Hecht-Lancaster Productions film Marty. He was again nominated three years later at the 31st Academy Awards ceremony for the 1958 Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions film Separate Tables.1959 Oscar Winners The film did not win but Hecht did accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in place of Wendy Hiller who could not be present. The Broadway play version of Separate Tables, produced by Hecht-Lancaster Productions, was nominated for the Best Play Award at the 11th Tony Awards ceremony in April 1957"Separate Tables Awards", Internet Broadway Database] In November 1959 Hecht was chosen by United States President Dwight Eisenhower to accompany the cultural exchange program committee in a trip to Russia when Marty was selected by the USSR as the first American film to be screened in that country since World War II."Johnston View", Motion Picture Daily, October 6, 1959, p13"U.A. Officials to Attend Marty Bow in Russia", Motion Picture Daily, October 22, 1959, p2
Fourteen of Hecht's film productions (and an additional three on which he was a choreographer) have won and been nominated for several awards and prizes at various ceremonies and film festivals, including; Academy Awards, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Film Awards, Bodil Awards, Directors Guild of America Award, Writers Guild of America Award, National Board of Review Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Laurel Awards, David di Donatello Award, Bambi Award and the Online Film & Television Association Award; and at the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. Four of the films Harold Hecht was associated with have been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board and have been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry; Duck Soup in 1990, Sweet Smell of Success in 1993, Marty in 1994 and She Done Him Wrong in 1996.National Film Preservation Board, List of Films
Early life Harold Adolphe Hecht was born on June 1, 1907, in Yorkville, New York City, to Joseph Hecht and Rose (née Loewy) Hecht.Joseph Hecht Death certificateJoseph Hecht AncestryBurt Lancaster – An American Life, Kate Buford, Da Capo His father was born on November 17, 1882, in Austria. While employed as a sailor at the age of seventeen, he immigrated to New York City in January 1899. Once in New York he worked in construction and eventually made it up to the position of a building contractor.Joseph Hecht US Census, 1900Joseph Hecht US Census, 1930 His mother was born on January 18, 1882, in Austria.Rose Lowey US Census 1900Rose Lowey US Census 1930Rose Hecht Ancestry Joseph and Rose were married in 1906 in New York City and had two children; Harold (born 1907) and Janet Hecht (b. 1910, later Janet Garfield, mother of Warren Garfield, a noted film trailer producer).
He attended PS 169, graduating in spring 1923 at the age of sixteen."Harold Hecht", The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, July 13, 1962, p2 Hecht is reported to have frequented the Union Settlement house on East 104th Street in East Harlem.The Corpus Christi Caller Times, April 9 1961, p88
Studies and Broadway career Just as Hecht was looking for his vocation, the very field he wanted to be in was interviewing students for a new school. In November 1923, Richard Boleslavsky, a Russian immigrant and former student of Konstantin Stanislavsky, opened the American Laboratory Theatre, the first school in the United States to teach Stanislavski's system of acting."The Theory and Practice of Actor Training at the American Laboratory Theatre", Margueritte Elaine Bryan Brault, University of Arizona, 1979 Hecht was among the first students accepted to attend the new school in late 1923. While there he studied and appeared in plays with Lee Strasberg (who later took Stanislavski's system and Americanized it into the method acting system), Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Anne Revere, Lenore Romney and Francis Fergusson.
Hecht excelled at The Lab and was accepted into its Auxiliary Acting Group, granting him the privilege of appearing in the school's produced plays, while remaining under Boleslavsky's teachings beyond the two years required to graduate. While attending The Lab, Hecht appeared in The Straw Hat (October–November 1926), Big Lake (April 1927, from a story by Rollie Lynn Riggs), Much Ado About Nothing (November–December 1927), Dr. Knock (February–March 1928), Grand Street Follies (May–October 1928, with dances staged by James Cagney) and The Wild Duck (November 1928 – January 1929)."The Bridal Veil", The Columbia Spectator February 8, 1928, p2Harold Hecht IMDb Other WorksHarold Hecht Credits, Internet Broadway Database"Mike Mine Borscht", Variety, May 12, 1948, p2
Many of The Lab's students worked on additional aspects of the plays that the school produced and Hecht was most drawn by choreography. He also worked under Boleslavsky, both in The Lab's productions and on other Broadway productions, as stage assistant. In 1929 Boleslavsky left for Hollywood and Hecht continued to attend The Lab headed by Maria Ouspenskaya and Maria Germanova.
After the American Laboratory Theatre closed in the spring of 1930, Hecht continued working on Broadway as either dancer or choreographer until late 1931. During this period he worked with Mikhail Mordkin, Martha Graham, George White and Albertina Rasch. He also worked on Les noces at the Metropolitan Opera."A Little from Lots", The Film Daily, November 11, 1931, p10
First Hollywood career
Beginning at RKO In October 1931 Richard Boleslavsky invited Hecht to join him in Hollywood to choreograph the dance numbers on an upcoming project he was set to direct at RKO Radio Pictures."Chi Chi at Radio" Variety, October 27, 1931, p6"Le Baron's Lyrics", Variety, November 3, 1931, p6 Chi Chi and Her Papas, a 1924 German comedic play originally written by and Fritz Lunzer under the title Sie und ihr Zimmerherr, had been translated into English by Max Steiner in a single day."A Little from Lots", The Film Daily, November 5, 1931, p8"A Little from Lots", The Film Daily, October 28, 1931"A Little from Lots", The Film Daily, October 29, 1931, p10 Steiner also composed three original songs and the score for the film adaptation, while the movie's producer, William LeBaron, wrote the lyrics. Humphrey Pearson was brought in for additional dialogue but eventually re-wrote the entire screenplay. Chi Chi and Her Papas was to be a starring vehicle for actress Lili Damita, her third film at RKO. Her leading man was scheduled to be John Warburton, loaned out from Fox Films, with Hugh Herbert as a singing supporting character."Loan Warburton", Variety, October 27, 1931, p4"Hollywood", Variety, November 3, 1931, p44 Other supporting roles were scheduled for George Frank, Tiny Sandford and Gertrude Astor."A Little from Lots", The Film Daily, November 10, 1931, p6
Hecht left by plane from New York City to Hollywood on Monday, November 2, his position on the film already confirmed."Flies for Ballet", Variety, November 10, 1931, p2 Once in California, he interviewed 200 girls and 150 men, in order to find the twelve girls and six men necessary for the dance numbers. Hecht hired Frances Grant (stage/screen name of the actress, dancer, and dance teacher Stella McCarron), fresh from assisting Larry Ceballos at Fanchon and Marco, to help him with the new routines on Chi Chi and Her Papas."Hollywood", Variety, November 10, 1931, p6 But a week after Hecht's arrival, the film was put on hold."Behind the Scenes in Hollywood", The Daily Iowan, November 18, 1931, p4 Earlier that fall, RKO had acquired the Pathé Exchange film studio and a number of issues had come of it."Hiram Brown, Pretty Score, Thinks He'll Fix Up Studio Miss in Hurry, As Hollywood Rival bosses Clash", Variety, November 17, 1931, 2/26 New studio head, David O. Selznick clashed with equally positioned Charles Rogers and similar arguments went on between producer William LeBaron and former vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer. Not only were crew positions scheduled to be cut (as the two studios merged into a single location), but some of the pictures too were cancelled. As part of the agreement, all 20 Pathé pictures in production at the time of the acquisition were to be made at RKO's studio. However, the 16 films on RKO's production schedule were not given the same security and for a variety of reasons, Chi Chi and Her Papas was one of the few to get shut down. LeBaron had already spent $100,000 within the four weeks of pre-production but neither Selznick nor Schnitzer liked the idea of the film and felt it was too racy and non-conducive to the American taste.
A few weeks later Hecht found work in the Los Angeles theater business. LeRoy Prinz was producing and directing the Edmunt Joseph and Nat Perrin story Lucky Day with financial backing from Rodney Pantages, Arthur Silber and Harold Morehouse."Amos-Andy Warm?", Variety, January 5, 1932, p3 Prinz had clashed with the original choreographer, Billy Grant and Hecht came in to replace him."Hecht Staging", Variety, December 8, 1931, p6 Other crew members included Earl Dancer staging the choir with music by Otis René and Leon René and lyrics by Ben Eilleon. Lucky Day opened at the Mayan Theater in L.A. on December 27 starring Alex Lovejoy, Eddie Anderson, Alma Travers, LeRoy Broomfield and Aurora Greeley. The play was relatively successful, gaining interest from RKO as a potential property.
Contract choreographer at Paramount